How long was your delay?
 

Everyone who has ever flown anywhere has experienced a delay. But was yours a significant amount of time sitting in the plane on the tarmac for three hours? Or were you at the airport and you had to disembark from the plane and wait in the passenger area because of mechanical failure? How long was your delay?

9 hrs to get from LIT-DFW (typically 1 hr in flight) most of that sitting on the ground on the plane after diverting to Wichita Falls, unable to leave the plane because of a constant wave of severe thunderstorms buffeting the plane, then once those past, the taxiway and runway lights had been knocked out by the storms. I was very grateful to be in first class on that flight.

20 hours? Depends on what you count as delay. Was diverted to Lafayette, LA on a MIA-IAH flight and had to wait hours on the tarmac as they figured out how to get us off the plane. Maybe 2 or 3 hours. Ended up being escorted by Sheriff's and EMTs unto tarmac and into back door of airport, apparently there were no gates or AA employees to handle our unexpected arrival. Got to IAH about 20 hours later.

Also been delayed for a few hours on an AA 772 back when they had F, after a couple of hours on plane but at gate they canceled flight. Everyone off plane and trying to rebook, didn't get to AA provided hotel until 3 or 4 am. Missed 1 day of vacation.

24 hours. An international flight was delayed, then cancelled. On a once a day route.

No more than a few hours, for trips I've actually taken. Rare for it to be that much; usually 1-2 at most. I think I've maybe de-planed once?

I had what would have been a 12+ hour delay earlier this year with a flight pushed to the next day. But at that point the trip wouldn't have been worth it, and I just drove home and cancelled it. Felt bad for the 777-worth of pax forming a line for AA customer service at CLT, at like midnight 😬

Long enough that they brought out the snack cart!
(which, they should be doing more often)

BTW, at SWO, our waiting room for our 1 gate is in a temporary trailer (~8 years running now) barely big enough to hold just enough seats for full E175 or CRJ700 (there are plans for an expanded terminal building, but waiting for the federal funds to trickle in). No food or drink options once past security except two sad vending machines and some free (but thin) coffee. The snack cart that they only break out if you are delayed for at least 2 hours is not so discretely hidden under a thick blanket right near the door to the tarmac, which you take to get to the stairs or ramp to the plane. After about an hour, I am so ready to just pull the blanket down and like a magician unveil the goodies to everyone.

12-23-22 MIA-TPA 10 hour delay (weather then mechanical then crew timing out)

3-31-24 (Easter Sunday) BOS-MIA 7 hour delay

5-15-24 PHX-JFK appx 5 hour delay (no pilot)

I have been relatively fortunate 7 hour delay on UVF - MIA. An extra 7 hours in St Lucia isn't the worst thing. We never actually boarded, just had to wait for a part to come in.

Longest after actually boarding was probably 2 hours at most, either waiting for deicing or returning to gate for fuel or maintenance.

If at all possible I don't wait it out. This is where the AC really provides value because they will help you switch flights. Also, I'm finding more and more the app will give me options to change flights if there's a long delay. Not sure if that's limited to say EXPs/CKs.

21 hours, DFW to GRU. Mechanical in that case.
Would have had an 18 hour one inb March after another mechanical from ORD to DFW had rolling delays, but an AC AAngel interlined me on UA.
Those are my only two horrible ones (the latter, was still many hours later because everythig had been booked), and the flight itself ended up an 18 hour.

Between strikes, weather, mechanicals and diversions; many.

My special flights were the 1 aborted takeoff when the engine had other ideas, 1 return to field, and 1 where the plane wouldn’t pressurize, but since it was a short enough and we had enough fuel to continue on bouncing around at 10k feet to our destination.

back 20 years ago or so I was stuck on a plane from early morning till late night - long enough that the episode was the inspiration for the rule that pax had to be allowed to deplane after x amount of time. the delay was all weather related. the flight was at the gate for hours and hours, then they thought a window was going to be open up long enough to get some flights out, we were one of them, but when waiting for our turn to take off the airport went back to a ground hold and we spent hours more waiting. I dont recall exactly how long it was, something like 12 hrs or more...

oof, a 20 hour delay is brutal. kudos for sticking it out though! I dont think i'd have the patience for that, i'd probably try rebooking way sooner. Props for toughing it out.

About 12 ish hours was my longest. Was flying MEL-SYD-HNL-YVR on Canadian Airlines. Took off late from Syd so missed the connection to Vancouver. Was put up in a hotel for the night. It was a poop fight to get on the busses as everyone wanted to be on the one that left. This was before mobile phones and I was told at the airport that they would call my Vancouver pick up but they never did.

Another fun delay was when a mouse was on a plane and there was a delay of a few hours. Every economy passenger ran for the business class lounge. They let everyone in whoever walked through the door without checking their boarding passes. I had had enough with the noise and it being packed so I did my "do you know who I am" thing to have them kicked out! I said to them... I pay a lot of money for business class and the perks that go with it, such as the lounge, yet everyone was clogging it on economy tickets who were not supposed to be in there. They started to kick everyone out! they gave me a blanket and directed me to a couch and turned the lights down so I could sleep! lol